McCain and Palin - post partisan mavericks

Like McCain, Palin is an American before being a Republican. She's a citizen before being a politician. And not all conservatives are going to like that.

Right Wing Nation has a wonderful essay about Palin:

Palin strengthens all of McCain’s strongest attributes. She’s a fearless fighter, who fought her state party’s entrenched power structure, and won. Strong and courageous — two of McCain’s greatest strenghs — are also hers. Like McCain, she hates corruption, back room deals, and government waste, and she’s been fighting it since before she was the governor. Also like McCain, she cares less for party line than what she believes is right. By putting her on the ticket instead of a Washington insider, McCain put real teeth in his campaign for change — real change, not insubstantial, undefined change. Like McCain, Palin is an unwavering, unapologetic patriot, and both believe firmly in Reagan’s view of America as a shining city on a hill.

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Let’s start with her character and values. Bill Whittle comments on another blog:

I think it is a big mistake to assume that McCain picked Palin because she is a woman. No doubt that is a part of it, but it is Palin’s character that has us just smitten with her. She had a problem at school one day so she went to a PTA meeting. She didn’t like the way things were going so she ran for the PTA and won. Then she ran for mayor of her hometown — where she played basketball and met her husband — and won. Then she got disgusted by Alaska politics and GOP corruption, and as a Republican ran against the corruption in her own party — and won. And she never whined or complained. She’s happily married, she’s a tough lady married to a tougher man, and she got there through hard work and sheer determination.

She’s the conservative success story, and that is why men and women on the right just LOVE this pick. Not because she’s a woman, but because she’s Joe, uh, make that JANE Citizen, and she played by the rules and beat corruption . . . I would encourage you to look at Sarah Palin as what we all hope for: a self-made person who seems to want to do the right thing. She’s not a Woman VP — she’s an anti-corruption VP. That’s how we see her. That’s how she deserves to be seen. She has the enthusiastic — actually, incandescent support of every conservative I know — not because she is a political missile aimed at Hillary voters, but because she embodies the American dream of the citizen who decided to make a difference.

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Her husband is a Democrat and a union member, and from everything we see, it works out well for them. He will be a cultural magnet. In season, he’s a commercial fisherman (he used to work in the oil fields until Palin’s fight with the oil companies, and he resigned due to conflict of interest). He’s a world champion snowmobile racer. Men all over the country are going to see him and admire him. He may not be on the ticket, but he will attract votes.